DuPont Shift Pattern: The 28 Day Rota, Explained
The DuPont shift pattern runs four teams on twelve hour shifts through a 28 day cycle with seven days off in a row. The full rota table, what it does to weekends and weekly hours, how it sits with the Working Time Regulations 1998, and how to book leave on it.
Table of Contents
The DuPont shift pattern is a four week rota for sites that never close. Four teams work twelve hour shifts, and each team runs the same 28 day sequence, one week apart: four nights, three days off, three days, one day off, three nights, three days off, four days, then seven days off in a row. Every 24 hours one team is on days, one on nights, two are off. Each person works 14 shifts per cycle, 168 hours, an average of 42 a week. Below: the full table, weekends, weekly hours, the Working Time Regulations 1998 and leave.
Key takeaways at a glance
- The DuPont shift pattern repeats every 28 days, exactly four calendar weeks, so each team meets the same weekday in the same position every cycle. That is the big difference from the eight day 4 on 4 off shift pattern, which needs 56 days to come round.
- Weekly hours run 48, 72, 48 and 0 for each person, averaging 42. The 72 hour week is legal under the 17 week average of regulation 4, but it is the week that tires people.
- Start the cycle on a Monday and every team gets two whole weekends off in four, 26 a year. Start it on a Sunday and all four weekends split.
- Four days of leave placed before the seven day break buy fourteen days away from work. Book leave in shifts, not weeks, or the DuPont rota quietly rewards whoever knows the trick.
- Four teams cover one round the clock post with nothing left over for leave or sickness. The honest headcount is four plus cover.
What is the DuPont shift pattern?
The DuPont shift pattern, also called the DuPont schedule or DuPont rota, takes its name from the chemicals company DuPont, whose plants ran around the clock. It spread to police control rooms, security and, in healthcare, to settings with a fixed 24 hour post: care homes with nursing, residential units, ambulance control.
Its core idea is to trade a hard middle week for a long break: work is bunched into three weeks, then a whole week is given back.
The usual UK timings are days 07:00–19:00 and nights 19:00–07:00.
The 28 day DuPont rota table
Here is one team, cycle starting on a Monday. N is a night shift, D a day shift, a dash is a day off. A night shift is listed on the day it starts.
| Week | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | N | N | N | N | - | - | - | 48 |
| 2 | D | D | D | - | N | N | N | 72 |
| 3 | - | - | - | D | D | D | D | 48 |
| 4 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 0 |
Count it through: 4 nights, 3 off, 3 days, 1 off, 3 nights, 3 off, 4 days, 7 off. That is 28 days and 14 shifts: seven nights, seven days.
The other three teams run exactly the same table, each shifted by one week. So in any given week one team is in its week 1, one in week 2, one in week 3 and one in its seven day break (a dot is a day off):
| Team | Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | N N N N · · · | D D D · N N N | · · · D D D D | · · · · · · · |
| B | · · · · · · · | N N N N · · · | D D D · N N N | · · · D D D D |
| C | · · · D D D D | · · · · · · · | N N N N · · · | D D D · N N N |
| D | D D D · N N N | · · · D D D D | · · · · · · · | N N N N · · · |
Read any column of days and you will find exactly one D and one N. That is the whole trick of the DuPont shift pattern.
Some sites run the mirror version, starting with four days and ending with four nights. The arithmetic is identical.
How does the DuPont shift pattern fit the Working Time Regulations?
The 48 hour limit and the 72 hour week
Regulation 4(1) caps working time at an average of 48 hours a week, and the default reference period in regulation 4(3) is 17 weeks. The DuPont shift pattern averages 42, so it clears the limit comfortably. Because 17 weeks is four full cycles plus one extra week, any 17 week window holds 672 hours plus whichever week happens to be the seventeenth: somewhere between 672 and 744 hours, an average of 39.5 to 43.8. Never near 48.
The 72 hour week is where the pattern earns its reputation: three twelve hour days, one day off, then three nights. The regulations allow it because they average; your staff do not live it as an average. Look hard at that week first: it is where one extra shift turns a heavy week into a dangerous one.
Night work and rest
A DuPont rota puts seven nights into every 28 days, so the people on it work nights as a normal course, and you should treat them as night workers under regulation 2. Two consequences follow.
First, the eight hour night average in regulation 6. Regulation 6(5) divides normal working hours by the days in the reference period less the weekly rest days under regulation 11: over 17 weeks, 119 minus 17, so 102. Even the heaviest window of 744 hours works out at about 7.3 hours per 24, under the limit. But regulation 6(7) caps night work at eight hours outright where the work involves special hazards or heavy physical or mental strain, and averaging does not help there. If your risk assessment puts a night role in that category, twelve hour nights are off the table, DuPont or not.
Second, regulation 7 requires you to offer night workers a free health assessment before they start nights and at regular intervals afterwards.
Rest works out cleanly inside the cycle. The shortest gap is between the last day shift of week 2 (ending Wednesday 19:00) and the first night (starting Friday 19:00): 48 hours, far above the eleven hours of daily rest in regulation 10. Every switch from nights to days has at least 72 hours off in between, and every seven day window contains at least 24 hours off, which is what regulation 11 asks. Breaches come from outside the pattern: a swap, an extra shift on the single rest day in week 2, a night added in front of a day block. The HSE's guidance on shift work is the right companion when you assess those.
In medishift you save each week of the cycle as a template and roll it forward over the coming months. See the plans!
Weekends, leave and staffing on a DuPont rota
Why the start day decides your weekends
Because 28 is a multiple of seven, the DuPont schedule deals out the same weekends to the same team every cycle, forever. That makes the start day a decision you make once.
| Cycle starts on | Whole weekends off (per 4 weeks) | Split weekends | Weekends worked |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Tuesday | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Wednesday | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| Thursday | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| Friday | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Saturday | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Sunday | 0 | 4 | 0 |
Nights are listed on the day they start. With a Tuesday or Saturday start, one of the two whole weekends off follows a Friday night that ends at 07:00 on Saturday, so it is a whole weekend on paper but the Saturday begins with sleep.
With a Monday start every team has two whole weekends off per cycle, 26 a year, against about 19 or 20 on 4 on 4 off. Start it on a Sunday and nobody ever gets a whole weekend.
Turning leave into shifts
Statutory leave is 5.6 weeks: four under regulation 13 and 1.6 under regulation 13A. On a DuPont rota a person works 14 shifts every four weeks, 3.5 a week, so 5.6 weeks comes to 19.6 shifts or 235.2 hours. The cross check matches: 5.6 weeks at the 42 hour average is also 235.2 hours.
Now look at what a calendar week of leave actually covers. Week 1 or week 3 of the cycle: four shifts, 48 hours. Week 2: six shifts, 72 hours. Week 4: nothing at all, because it is already the seven day break. If you deduct leave in weeks, the same "one week off" costs somebody 72 hours and somebody else zero.
Experienced staff find the next move quickly. Take the four day shifts of week 3 as leave and you are off from Monday of week 3 to Sunday of week 4: fourteen days for four shifts. Add the four nights of the next cycle and it becomes 21 days for eight shifts, 96 hours, about 41 per cent of the year's allowance. If those long breaks go to whoever asks first, the rota stops feeling fair. Deduct the shifts a request covers, never weeks, and cap the extended breaks per person before the leave year opens.
Bank holidays behave like any other date: one day team and one night team are always on. Which team works Christmas Day is another matter. A year is 13 cycles plus one day (two in a leap year), so the cycle slips only one day against the calendar each year. Christmas moves slowly through each team's sequence, which means the same team can have Christmas off several years running while another works it several years running. Agree a swap rule for Christmas before the rota goes up.
How many people a DuPont schedule needs
One post that is never left empty needs 168 hours of cover a week. Four teams at 42 hours each give exactly 168. That is why the DuPont shift pattern suits a single round the clock post so neatly, and also why it breaks: there is nothing in 168 for the 5.6 weeks of leave every person is owed, close to eleven per cent of the year, let alone sickness or a vacancy.
Cover inside the pattern is awkward: the obvious stand-in is someone on their seven day break, and pulling them in destroys the one thing the DuPont rota promises. Plan cover from outside the four lines: bank staff, a relief line, or part timers who fill known gaps. The overview of shift systems sets out the other continuous models, and the rolling rota guide covers how a fixed cycle handles leave.
Take a care home with nursing that needs one registered nurse on duty around the clock. Four nurses on four DuPont lines cover every day and night. Each is owed 235.2 hours of leave, so together they take 940.8 hours a year, about 78 twelve hour shifts, or one and a half a week that the four lines cannot fill. A bank line closes that gap without touching anyone's seven day break. Sickness comes on top.
Putting the DuPont shift pattern into practice
A 28 day cycle is four calendar weeks, so in medishift you can save each week of the table as a week template with its shifts and assignments, then apply each template to future weeks at an interval of every fourth week, for up to twelve months. Four passes, and the whole DuPont schedule stands for the year.
Per location you can switch on rules for a minimum rest period between shifts and a maximum number of consecutive working days; the plan then marks every shift that breaks them. They are warnings, not hard blocks. The overtime account measures actual hours against the target and shows the swing a DuPont rota creates on a 42 hour target: plus 6 after week 1, plus 36 after week 2, plus 42 after week 3, back to zero after the break.
In short: the DuPont shift pattern gives you a 28 day cycle that fits the calendar, a real week off and two whole weekends in four. The price is the 72 hour week and a headcount of four plus cover. Settle the start day, the leave rules and the Christmas swaps before the first cycle. To try it with your own team, see the plans.
This is not legal advice. Check your contracts and risk assessments against the Working Time Regulations before you roll the pattern out.
